Rotary clutch for use between rotary electric switches and their drive



Feb. 19, 1963 3,077,363

K. VCLKER ROTARY CLUTCH FOR USE BETWEEN ROTARY ELECTRIC SWITCHES AND THEIR DRIVE Filed 001;. 20. 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 WVENTOR. KW L V65 L KER H15 Asa/r Feb. 19, 1963 K. VCLKER 3,077,963

ROTARY CLUTCH FOR usE BETWEEN ROTARY 9 ELECTRIC SWITCHES A ND THEIR DRIVE Filed Oct. 20. 195 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Farent 3,0773% Patented Feb. 19, 1963 ice 3,077,963 ROTARY CLUTCH FOR USE BETWEEN ROTARY ELECTRIC SWITCHE AND TIEER DRIVE Karl Viillrer, Vienna, Ausnia, assignor to Hubert Laurenz, Naimer, Vienna, Austria Filed Oct. 2%, 1959, Ser. No. 847,613 filaims priority, application Austria Oct. 29, 1958 4 Claims. (Cl. 192-.02)

The present invention provides a rotary clutch for use between rotary electric switches and intermittently acting drive means, particularly rotary magnets, associated therewith. It is an object of the invention so to design such a clutch that the switch can be selectively turned either by hand as desired-for this purpose it carries a turning grip at one end of its shaft-or by electric remote control by operating the drive means acting on the other end of the switch.

It is not diificult to solve this problem if a torque transmitting means driving only in one direction is provided between the drive means and the switch if the switch need to be turned by hand only in that direction which is permitted by the means driving only in one direction. This restriction that the switch can be operated only in one direction of rotation, however, is incompatible with or at least highly detrimental in numerous fields of application and does not eliminate the problem of providing a clutch which is free of this restriction.

The present invention solves the problem mentioned initially hereinbefore in that the drive has connected thereto a first clutch half, which by means of coupling elements which are radially displaceable relative to it adjusts a second clutch half mounted on the switch shaft as soon as a certain angle of lost motion has been exceeded, which coupling element is disengaged from the second clutch half when the first clutch half is at rest.

In the diagrammatic drawing FIG. 1 shows the entire arrangement of the switch, clutch and drive means whereas FIGS. 2, 3 show an illustrative embodiment of the present rotary clutch, FIG. 2 being a vertical sectional view taken on line IIII of FIG. 3 and FIG. 3 being a transverse sectional View taken on line IIIIII of FIG. 2.

As has been indicated initially hereinbefore the problem resides in that a switch which consists of several switch units 1 and a stepping mechanism 2 and which is mounted in a manner which is not of interest in this connection by means of a carrying plate 3 in a carrier 4 is to be operated by the rotary magnetic drive means 5 and the clutch 6 and selectively also by the grip 7, which should be rotatable in either direction whereas the rotary magnet 5 switches only in one direction. This rotary magnetic drive means may be, e.g., as described in my copending application Ser. No. 831,561, filed on August 4, 1959, now US. Patent No. 3,029,327.

The rotary magnetic drive means 5 includes a stationary electromagnet 5 the windings of which are connected to terminals 18', and a movable rotary armature 5" which acts as an energy storing flywheel. When a suitable voltage is applied to the terminal 18', the armature 5" is angularly displaced and tensions a spring 25. When current flow is interrupted, the spring returns the armature to its initial position.

The rotary clutch consists according to FIG. 2 of a first clutch half 10, on which the intermittently rotating drive means, which springs back to its initial position after each incremental rotation, acts, e.g., by means of connecting elements 9, and of a second clutch half 11, which must be considered rigidly coupled to the switch shaft 8 (FIG. 1). Coupling elements 12, in the present case two of them, are provided between the two clutch halves 10, 11 and consist of a plate 12a and a guide pin 12b. The coupling elements 12 are designed to be radially adjustable relative to the two clutch halves 1t), 11 in a manner which will be described hereinafter so that they can fall into openings 13 of the second clutch half 11 and in this position couple the clutch parts 10, 11 by means of the pins 12b. In this condition a torque acting on part 1% is transmitted to part 11 and consequently to the switch 1.

The coupling elements 12 are guided in slots 14a of an intermediate member 14, which is rotatable with some friction in a housing 15 relative to the first clutch part 10. The guide pins 12b of the coupling elements 12 slide in eccentric slots 16a of the clutch half 10. The clutch described thus far operates as follows:

The position in which the parts are shown is the position of rest. If the clutch half 10 is turned by the drive means in the sense of arrow A the coupling elements 12 are first radially outwardly displaced by their pins 12a sliding in the eccentric grooves 10a because the intermediate member 14 is braked and does not follow the rotation of the half 10. This braking may be effected in any desired manner by friction or in that part 14 is braked by pressure rollers 16 provided at the stationary housing 15, as will be described in more detail hereinafter. After the clutch half 10 has been rotated through a certain angle [3 (in the example shown this angle ,8 equals 60") the coupling elements reach the grooves 13 and have fallen into the same, see position 12'. The several parts are so designed that the length of the grooves 10a (angle 3) is so determined in view of the depth of the cuts 13 that in position 12' the guide pins 12b have also reached the end of grooves 10a, which means that the coupling pins have reached position 12 and are now driven by the first clutch half 10 in the direction of rotation of clutch part 16 so that the clutch half 11 and with it the switch 1, FIG. 1, and by means of the walls of grooves 14a the intermediate member 14 are also driven. It is thus achieved that the drive means idles for a certain time, which corresponds here to the angle 5, as is of critical significance for rotary magnet devices having a lost motion and energy storage according to my aforementioned copending application, and that a contact between the coupling elcments 12 and the cuts 13 is established over a sufilciently large area before the switch is rotated so that the wear of the parts is reduced as the pressure per unit of area is now small.

As soon as the torque transmitting connection between the clutch halves 10, 11 has been established because the lost motion has been performed the switch will be turned through a certain angle. It may be assumed that this rotation amounts, e.g., to for one switching step. As the drive means is of the intermittent type the clutch half 10 returns to its initial position apparent from the drawing when the driving torque has disappeared because part 10 is returned to this position by the return spring provided in the magnet. Owing to the braking of the inter mediate member 14 this return movement causes first a retraction of the coupling elements 12 from the cuts 13, the pins 12b being guided from position 12 back to the initial position shown, and finally, as the pins 12b reach the ends of grooves 10a as shown in FIG. 3, also a return of the intermediate member 14 which rotates with the clutch part 10 which continues to run whereas the advanced second clutch half 11 is no longer returned because the coupling connection between coupling elements 12 and coupling half 11 no longer exists.

Depend-ing on the switching angle performed by the drive device per switching step a larger or smaller number of cuts 13 must be provided in the clutch half 11 or, in other words, the pitch angle of the cuts 13, which is assumed to be 180 in the example shown, must agree with the switching angle of the drive means. In practice a switching angle of 180 would be unusually large but it is apparent that the present clutch may be designed for any desired switching angle because the latter depends only on the setting of the drive means and on the distribution of the cuts 13 rather than on the angle 5 of lost motion, which depends on the dimensional relations of the drive means, as has been set forth in detail in the above-mentioned patent specification.

As the clutch half 11 connected to the switch shaft is not connected to the intermediate member 14 and the first clutch half in normal condition, when the drive means is at rest, the switch 1 can be turned as desired in both directions with a turning grip 7 carried thereby.

The generally cylindrical circumferential face of the intermediate member 14 is provided with a radially projecting cam 18, which cooperates with a roller 16. The roller 16 is rotatably mounted on a slide 29 which is guided for radial movement in the housing 15. 'The roller is urged into abutting engagement with the aforementioned circumferential face of the intermediate member 14 by springs 21 which abut against the slide 20 and the housing 15. The slide carries an actuator button 22 which is an element of a switch also including two conductive contact blades 17. The blades are mounted in the housing in such a manner that one of the blades is resiliently moved into contact with the other blade by the actuator button 22 when the cam 18 moves the slide 20 radially outward against the restraint of the springs 21. The switch, the terminals of which are indicated at 17 in FIG. 1 lies in the current supply circuit of the rotary magnetic drive means the terminals of which are indicated at 18 in FIG. 1 and is designed to be closed when the return rotation of the clutch half 10 has been completed so that the magnet 5 receives again a current pulse of adequate duration whereby the magnetic drive means is caused to perform another forward rotary step in its oscillating movement; as a result, any desired sequence of switching pulses is performed as long as the command switch included in line 19 remains closed. As this is assumed to be a remote control, back-signalling means will be provided in known manner which signal the position. reached by the switch back to the command station.

One advantage of the present rotary clutch resides in that the amount of idle rotation is exactly predetermined, which is significant for a satisfactory operation of a rotary magnet drive in which the switching energy is stored.

Even if the switch to be driven has large dimensions the several parts of the present clutch may be made from synthetic thermoplastics, suitably of the polyamide or superpolyamide base type because the ensured idle movement causes the transmission of the full torque to be delayed until the coupling elements 12 have reached their extreme position 12'. quent transmission of the full switching torque by the extensions 12b of restricted size, additional transmitting means, suitably in the form of bolts 10b which protrude from part 10 and extend into grooves 14b of the intermediate element 14 (or vice versa) may be provided between part 10 and the intermediate element 14, the

arc length of groove 14b being equal to or somewhat smaller than the angle ,6 so that after a rotation through the angle ,8 or somewhat earlier the extension 1% reaches the end of the recess 14b so that the intermediate elernent 14 is driven by the first clutch member 10 and the torque is now transmitted by parts 10, 101'), the wall oi slot 14b, grooves 14a, 12, the wall of cuts 13 and 1 What is claimed is:

1. A switch arrangement comprising a driven clutch member and a driving clutch member rotatable about a common axis; drive means connected. to said driven clutch member for actuating oscillating movement of said driven member about said axis through a predeter- In order to avoid a subsemined angle; rotary switch means connected to said driving clutch member for actuation thereby; a coupling member; and motion transmitting means connected to said clutch members for consecutively moving said coupling member from a first inoperative position to a second inoperative position, and hence to an operative position in which said coupling. member simultaneously engages said clutch members for transmitting movement from said driven to said driving member, when said driven clutch member consecutively moves relative to said driving member in one direction through predetermined first and. second portions of said angle respectively, and for consecutively moving said coupling member from ,said operative position to said second and said first inoperative position when said driven member moves relative to said driving member in the other direction through said second and firstportions of said angle respectively.

2. A switch arrangement as set forth in claim 1, Wherein said motion transmitting means includes an intermediate member formed with radial guides and brake means yieldably braking movement of said intermediate member, when said driven member is moved by said drive means about said axis, said driven clutch member is formed with oblique guides and said coupling member includes a coupling portion engaging one of said guides in said intermediate member and an extension engaging one of said guides of said driven clutch member.

3. A switch arrangement as set forth in claim 2, further comprising means for transmitting torque between the driven clutch member and the intermediate member after said coupling member has been moved from said first inoperative positionto saidoperative position.

4. A switch arrangement as set forth in claim 2, in which said drive means is electrically actuated, said arrangement further comprising control means actuated by movement of said intermediate member to control the supply of current to said drive means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,119,938 Dustin et al. Dec. 8, 1914 1,163,298 Winkler Dec. 7, 1915 1,955,200 Millican Apr. 17, 1934 FOREIGN PATENTS 69,560 Norway Aug. 27, 1945 

1. A SWITCH ARRANGEMENT COMPRISING A DRIVEN CLUTCH MEMBER AND A DRIVING CLUTCH MEMBER ROTATABLE ABOUT A COMMON AXIS; DRIVE MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID DRIVEN CLUTCH MEMBER FOR ACTUATING OSCILLATING MOVEMENT OF SAID DRIVEN MEMBER ABOUT SAID AXIS THROUGH A PREDETERMINED ANGLE; ROTARY SWITCH MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID DRIVING CLUTCH MEMBER FOR ACTUATION THEREBY; A COUPLING MEMBER; AND MOTION TRANSMITTING MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID CLUTCH MEMBERS FOR CONSECUTIVELY MOVING SAID COUPLING MEMBER FROM A FIRST INOPERATIVE POSITION TO A SECOND INOPERATIVE POSITION, AND HENCE TO AN OPERATIVE POSITION IN WHICH SAID COUPLING MEMBER SIMULTANEOUSLY ENGAGES SAID CLUTCH MEMBERS FOR TRANSMITTING MOVEMENT FROM SAID DRIVEN TO SAID DRIVING MEMBER, WHEN SAID DRIVEN CLUTCH MEMBER CONSECUTIVELY MOVES RELATIVE TO SAID DRIVING MEMBER IN ONE DIRECTION THROUGH PREDETERMINED FIRST AND SECOND PORTIONS OF SAID ANGLE RESPECTIVELY, AND FOR CONSECUTIVELY MOVING SAID COUPLING MEMBER FROM SAID OPERATIVE POSITION TO SAID SECOND AND SAID FIRST INOPERATIVE POSITION WHEN SAID DRIVEN MEMBER MOVES RELATIVE TO SAID DRIVING MEMBER IN THE OTHER DIRECTION THROUGH SAID SECOND AND FIRST PORTIONS OF SAID ANGLE RESPECTIVELY. 